*~.:n.e.i.g.h.b.o.r.h.o.o.d.k.i.d.s:.~*
This is the story of how we grew into what we are today:
The strangely cheerful Goth girl.
The arachnophobic designer.
The dependent child genius.
The silent guardian.
The mischievous runaway.
And the air-headed actress.
It can be whatever kind of story you like. To us, this is just our story. Welcome to it.
Chapter One
(POV: Frosty)One day, about a week after we first moved to “the neighborhood,” Mom came in with the mail.
“Look! Our new neighbors invited us to a house warming party!” she said, reading the contents of a bright pink envelope, “That’s nice of them…they could’ve chosen a different color for the envelope, though…” I looked away from the TV. “Whassa house warming party?” I asked.
“It’s like a party to welcome us to the neighborhood,” Mom explained with a smile. I nodded slowly.
“It’s not this weekend, is it? We have to unload the moving truck then…” Dad asked from the kitchen. Mom glanced at the invitation and shook her head.
“No, it’s two days from now…” she said. Dad nodded.
“Do you wanna go?” he asked. Mom sighed.
“I don’t know…we’re gonna be pretty busy this week…” she said, rubbing the back of her neck, “And I don’t wanna have to deal with those other popsicle-mothers…” I turned around again.
“Mo-om! We HAVE to go! We’d hurt their feelings if we didn’t!” I exclaimed. Mom and Dad both laughed. I didn’t really see what was so funny; I wasn’t trying to make a joke…
“Alright, alright…”
Koji, my younger brother, drove his toy car across the carpet humming, “Paaarty, partypartypaaaaarty…”
***
(POV Dani)
“Mo-om! I don’t waaanna wear that stupid dress!”
“Danielle! You’re wearing that dress to the party whether you like it or--YOU GET BACK HERE, YOUNG LADY!”
I ran down the hall and to my room, slamming and barricading the door behind me. I heard my mom’s fist pounded on the door.
“DANIELLE CHRISTINE FEDRAKE, YOU OPEN THIS DOOR NOW!” she yelled.
“No! I’m not putting on that stupid dress!” I yelled back, “It’s all girly and crap!” My little sister, Halie, who was sharing the room with me, woke up and started crying. I glared at her.
“Danielle, did you wake up your younger sister?” Mom asked from behind the door.
“No, she woke up on her own!” I exclaimed, “Why would I wanna wake her up, anyway?! She does nothing but cry, anyway!”
The door suddenly flung open. I jumped back to avoid getting hit by it. Mom stood in the doorway, holding a spare key. (I had yet to find out where she kept it) In her other hand, she held the frilliest and laciest dress I’d ever laid eyes on.
“Come on, Danielle! You need to try this on!” she said, “I heard that the new family has a girl that’s about your age. You wouldn’t want to make a bad impression, would you?” I sighed. I didn’t know what any of that meant, but it didn’t look like I was gonna win. Maybe I’d get mud all over it or something, and I wouldn’t have to wear it…
Mom gave a smirk of satisfaction and shoved the dress in my arms.
“Don’t try anything sneaky. I expect to see that dress in one piece by the party,” she said, walking out and closing the door behind her. I scowled at her back, and when the door closed, I sighed. Halie had stopped crying for a little bit, but resumed again when I threw the now bunched-up dress at her.
***
(POV Third Person)
TWO DAYS LATER
Juliet Grayhart glanced at a nearby clock as she pulled on her coat. It was 5:30; the welcoming party was going to start soon. She walked down the hall to the last room on the right. A small boy with messy blonde hair was lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling with a blank, uninterested expression. His dark green eyes blinked as Juliet poked her head into the room.
“Nathan, are you sure you don’t want to come? The new family has a girl that’s about your age…”
The boy shook his head and made a small “nngh” of annoyance. Juliet hesitated, and then said, “Make sure Michael gets his juice in an hour, okay?” Nathan shrugged and nodded. She sighed and, closing the door behind her, headed off down the hall again. Nathan worried her. He didn’t have any friends; in fact, it seemed as though the other kids avoided him. He didn’t do any of the things that boys his age would do. He usually either sat in his room and did nothing or went outside and did nothing still. And when her youngest son, Michael, was awake, they would lock themselves in his room and wouldn’t come out for the rest of the night. Before entering the living room, she stole a glance into another room. Her husband said he was going out with friends again, and wouldn’t be back until later that night. He didn’t even bother cleaning up before he left. She sighed again and continued down the hall.
***
(POV Frosty)
The housewarming party was held at this big, yellow house on the corner. The woman who owned the house introduced herself as Mrs. Fedrake, but I remember not being able to pronounce her last name and ending up calling her Miss Feedree for some strange reason. There were a bunch of plastic tables and chairs set up in the backyard with food and drinks, and paper streamers hung from chair to chair. (“Must be hard to sit down…” Mom commented) It was already evening when the party began, and small rain clouds were forming in the sky. A cool breeze blew by every now and then, penetrating the heat and humidity in the air.
I stood in one of the white plastic chairs, reaching for a bag of chips in the middle of the table. Mom chose a frilly white dress for me to wear, with a small short-sleeved vest, dainty little shoes, etc. I didn’t really mind it, but it was really uncomfortable. I could barely move around in it. Poor Koji was stuck with a miniature tuxedo, which had turned dark brown from the mud he’d begun to play in.
There was another girl there who I’d heard was Mrs. Fedrake’s daughter. She had a slight scowl on her face, as if she really didn’t want to be there. She was wearing a dress similar to mine, only lavender colored. Her short, light-brown hair was pulled out of her face with a purple barrette, which she would tug at absentmindedly every now and then. She was chewing on a piece of her hair that had fallen out of the barrette. She must’ve noticed what I was doing because she picked up the bag of chips and handed it to me. I took it and thanked her.
“I’m Frosty,” I said. The girl laughed.
“That’s a cute name! I’m Dani,” she said, and added with a glare, “Call me Danielle and you’re dead.” I nodded slowly. She sighed and picked at some of the lace on her dress.
“…you don’t like your dress..?” I asked. Dani sighed and shook her head.
“No…I hate lace…” she said with a frown. I nodded slightly.
A gust of wind blew the potato chip bag off the table, spreading the chips all over a portion of the yard. We both gasped at the same time.
“The chips…!” I exclaimed, hopping out of my chair and running to where the chips had fallen. I bent down to pick up the bag, but another gust of wind blew it out of my hands. So I went chasing the bag around the yard. It finally stopped under a chair on the other side of the yard. Feeling satisfied, I picked it up and was about to head back to the table when I heard some of the neighborhood mothers talking. I’m not sure why, but I liked listening to people’s conversations. It gave me something to do, I guess. I pretended to look at the nutrition label on the bag and listened.
“That new family that just moved in…the Adelines, was it? What do you think of them?”
“Them? I hardly think of them at all. They don’t look like much.”
“Oh, listen to you! You haven’t even gotten to know them.”
“I don’t need to. I mean, look at that one son of theirs. They don’t even watch their children long enough to keep them out of the mud. Despicable…”
“And what about the girl?”
“She seems rather…boring to me…she wasn’t interacting with the other children enough to make it seem as though she had a personality. Poor thing…her parents must neglect her so.”
“I don’t think that’s true; the four of them seemed awful happy together when they arrived here.”
“Oh, Meredith, you’re so naive. The parents probably TOLD them to act like that, as making a good impression is the most important thing in a relationship, even if it IS just with the other parents of the neighborhood. Nothing slides past me…”
“So you think they’re faking it?”
“Of course. No one can ever be THAT happy, goodness knows.”
I listened to all of this with horror. Random words and thoughts were flashing through my mind, telling me different things.
“Go tell them who’s boss!”
“Just ignore them, they don’t know any better.”
“Do they really think that?”
“Koji isn’t…whatever they called him…”
“Mom and Dad…they’re really that happy…!”
“We’re not unhappy…”
“…right?”
I flopped down into a chair behind me. All of this was making my brain hurt. The bag of chips fluttered out of my hands. I didn’t chase it this time.
“Hey! There you are!” I heard Dani’s voice say. I looked up and saw her walking towards me.
“You just disappeared after that bag of chips! I didn’t know where you went…” she said, “…where IS the bag, by the way?” She looked down at me and frowned.
“Come on, wassamatter?” she asked, “You can’t look all frowny like that at a party…well, unless you’re dressed in a frilly dress like that, so I know how you feel…”
I shook my head.
“That’s…not…” I started. Dani looked behind me.
“Ah--! The bag!” she exclaimed, running behind me. I turned around to watch her as she chased after it. That’s when I noticed the trees behind the house. A forest? I thought. Well, we WERE in the south, after all. There had to be a lot of trees here. They seemed to go on forever. I noticed there wasn’t a fence or anything…nothing to stop anything from going in or out.
Nothing to stop ME.
I slid out of my chair and ran for the trees. I ran right past Dani as she bent down to pick up the bag, and she fell over. I didn’t stop to look back.
“Hey…HEY! Frosty! Come back! Those woods are really dangero--” I heard Dani start to yell. I didn’t hear the rest of her sentence. The forest seemed to block out all noise from the outside.
I remember the feeling of being in those woods that night. The strong pinewood smell, the damp air, the small crunch of dead leaves as I stepped on them. I also remember how terrified I was. It was almost completely dark, and I couldn’t see anything in front of my face. It made me uneasy, not knowing what was around me.
After I’d ran for about five or ten minutes, I realized that a pebble had somehow lodged itself into my shoe. Rather than just taking the pebble out, I pried off my shoes and kept running. It was a lot easier this way. I felt some of the branches ripping at the hem of my skirt. I didn’t bother with it.
I noticed a bit of pale blue light from in between the trees. I stopped and, after staring at it for a while, ran towards it. The trees finally came to an end, and I saw that the light was coming from a large lake right in the middle of the forest. There was a wooden pier that led out into the middle of the lake. I walked to the edge. I stared down into the water at my own reflection and gasped…because it wasn’t my reflection that looked back at me…
The words of those women flashed through my mind again.
“…don’t pay enough attention…seems rather boring…parents must neglect her…”
“DESPICABLE”
***
In a nearby pub, drunken laughter and yells erupted louder than usual. It had already started to rain, so everyone had taken shelter inside. Except for one.
A boy, no older than 6 or 7, sat outside the pub, staring upward at the sky. His wild black hair was held back by a strip of black cloth, and the rest of his dark-colored clothes were torn and dirty. The only small ounces of color on him were his eyes. They were a pale, mesmerizing blue that made him seem completely innocent and pure. These eyes would blink every now and then as the rain fell on his face.
The doors to the pub swung open, and a group of men strode out, each holding a bottle of beer. It was quite obvious that they were drunk by the way they walked. The boy didn’t make any movement as they walked past him; it didn’t even seem as though he noticed them. One of the men, a strong-looking blonde with a messy mustache and beard, turned around towards him.
“Heey, kid…shouldn’t you be at home with yo’ mommy..?” he asked, a stupid grin on his face. The boy didn’t respond at all. The stupid grin turned into a frown, and the man said, “Kid! You look at an adult when they talkin’ to you!” The boy still didn’t respond. The man took a small step backwards, swung his right leg forward and kicked the boy in the head. The boy fell to his side, blinking in alarm. He glared upward at the man, rubbing the side of his head. The man gave him a smirk.
“C’mon, tough guy…you wanna mess with me?” he asked. The boy pulled himself to his feet and ignored the man’s comment. The man growled and kicked the boy hard in the stomach. The boy inhaled sharply and keeled over, clutching his stomach in pain. He coughed into his hand, and a few drops of blood were visible on his palm.
“That should teach ya…” he heard the man say. The other men around him laughed loudly and made comments as they walked away.
“Geez, you didn’t have ta be so hard on the kid!”
“Nah, Grayhart did the right thing. They dun listen, you show ‘em who’s boss!”
“Nah, really…”
Their voices faded into the distance. After a few minutes, the boy finally regained enough strength to stand again. He pulled on his shoes (which he’d taken off before sitting down) and walked off towards the forest next to the pub.
He knew his way around the woods, having lived there most of his life. The ground was wet from all the rain, and it made it easier to walk on. The atmosphere, the peacefulness, the quiet…it was almost entrancing. The boy sighed. As he began to pass the lake, he noticed a girl standing on the edge of the pier, looking down at the water. Her clothes were ripped up and dirty, and she was barefoot. She seemed upset about something, because her shoulders were shaking with fury. Or so he assumed. It wasn’t actually that cold out, so he couldn’t really see why else she would be shivering…
He snuck up behind her, trying his best not to make a sound. She didn’t notice him at first. Finally, he asked, “…excuse me…are you okay…?” The girl gasped and whirled around. In doing so, her foot slipped off the edge of the pier and she fell into the water. The boy gasped and, running up to the edge of the pier, dove in. He could see through the water easily; this lake was famous for being literally crystal clear. He finally spotted the girl and swam towards her. Her eyes were shut tight, and she had her hands in front of her face. She must’ve been afraid of getting the lake water in her eyes. He wrapped his arms around her waist and swam upward. They soon reached the surface; after that, it was easier to swim to shore. He pulled the girl up to land and set her down on the ground. She coughed a couple times and looked around.
“W-what…just…?” she began. Her gaze landed on the boy. Her eyes widened a little.
“Are…you okay…?” the boy asked. The girl smiled and nodded.
“Y-yes…you saved me, right…?” she asked. The boy nodded.
“Th-thanks…” she said slowly. She paused, and then asked, “Do you know what your name is?” The boy blinked. This was a strange way to ask a question; normally, people would ask “What’s your name?” It was also strange for her to ask it this way because, in truth, the boy didn’t know. He shook his head. The girl nodded slightly.
“I think I get it…” She held out her hand.
“My name is Frosty.” The boy hesitated. He took her hand and shook it.
“Thanks for saving me,” the girl, Frosty, said again. The boy nodded curtly and said, “…you said, ‘I think I get it.’ What did you mean…?” Frosty looked thoughtful for a minute.
“…well, my mom used to sing me this song…I didn’t know what she was singing, ‘cause it was in a different language…she told me what it really meant, and it was about this boy who only came out at night and stuff, and when the sun came up, the boy went away,” she explained, “And…you seem a lot like him, so…”
“Did he have a name…?” the boy asked.
“His name was Kimori,” Frosty answered. The boy gave a hesitant smile. He knew who she was talking about…
“Then…Kimori is probably my name…” he said. Frosty clapped her hands happily.
“I got it right!” she exclaimed. The boy, now named Kimori, gave a small laugh. Frosty attempted to stand up, but lost her balance and fell down again. Kimori offered to carry her, and she accepted gratefully. He pulled her onto his back, and they set off. She told him that she lived in a nearby neighborhood, and was at a party before she ran off. Kimori knew the neighborhood well, since he passed it every day.
“Why did you run off…?” he asked. When Frosty didn’t answer, he looked over his shoulder at her. She looked to be asleep. He sighed and continued walking. He saw the lights of the neighborhood through the trees, and after about five more minutes, finally reached the backyard of a large yellow house. He looked around. Several of the adults were running around in a panic, searching under tables and around corners. One of these adults, a woman with shoulder-length curly brown hair, noticed Kimori and let out a gasp of relief.
“You found her!” she exclaimed. A girl who looked to be a little older than Frosty saw them and ran over.
“Is Frosty okay?!” she asked. Kimori nodded.
“She fell asleep on the way back, though…” he said. The woman took Frosty into her arms and held her tight.
“Thank you SO much, we were so worried!” she said gratefully. She blinked and examined Kimori up and down.
“…uh…do your parents know you’re out here like this?” she asked. Kimori opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again and looked down. The woman paused, then nodded understandingly.
“Oh, I see…” She frowned slightly.
“Well, we can’t have you looking like THAT. C’mon.” She took her free hand and grabbed Kimori’s wrist. Kimori was too startled by this action to object. The woman (who Kimori thought had to be Frosty’s mother) called out to her husband and began walking towards the street.
“Um, where are we…?” Kimori began. Frosty’s mother gave an impatient sigh.
“You’re coming home. Where else would we be going?” she said. Kimori blinked. He started to say something, but was cut off by the husband, who began a conversation with the mother.
Home…is that what they called it?
The car-ride home was somewhat pleasant; to Kimori, anyway. He’d never been in a car before. He watched the trees fly by the window with wonder, enjoying the strange warmth of the inside of the car. It was over before he knew it.
The mother hurried everyone inside. (it was still raining) Tossing a towel to Kimori, she told him to wait in the living room while she put Frosty in her own room. In her absence, Kimori took the opportunity to examine his surroundings. There were boxes piled up in corners; he was guessing that they’d just moved in. Against the wall was a large bookshelf, already stocked with books and manuals. There was a small blue couch behind him, but he didn’t sit down. He was soaking wet, so he didn’t want to ruin it.
***
Frosty finally woke up some fifteen minutes later. She was lying in her own bed. It looked like it was night outside. She remembered the boy, Kimori, and sighed. Could it have all been a dream?
She suddenly noticed her mother sitting next to her bed and sat upright. Her mother smiled.
“Hi. How are you feeling?” she asked. Frosty blinked.
“Wasn’t I dreaming…?” she asked slowly. Her mother laughed.
“Well, unless you have dreams of giving me a heart attack, then sure,” she said. At first, Frosty thought her mother was serious. Then she realized that it was a joke.
“What happened?” she asked. Her mother glanced at the doorway.
“You just suddenly disappeared…we looked everywhere for you. This black-haired boy showed up with you, and I swear, I almost died of relief,” she said. Frosty blinked.
“Boy…?” she said slowly. Her eyes lit up, realizing who her mother was talking about, and she said excitedly, “Mom, I got to meet him!”
“Well, of course you did. He brought you back, didn’t he?” her mother said with a small frown. She obviously didn’t understand. Frosty shook her head furiously.
“No, no! I got to meet HIM! I got to meet Kimori!” she exclaimed. Her mother gave her a confused and almost sympathetic look.
“Sweetheart…that’s only a folk song…he doesn’t really…” she began. Frosty shook her head harder.
“No, I’m sure of it! The boy who saved me! He’s EXACTLY like the one in the song!” she said firmly. Her mother sighed.
“Alright, if you insist…” She stood up.
“I’ll go get you some more blankets, alright?” she said, and walked out. Frosty flopped back down against her pillows and grinned to herself. She must’ve had some kind of luck. To not only be saved from drowning, but by a (supposedly) fictional character that she’d always looked up to: the boy of the night, Kimori.
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